CHELMSFORD, Mass. – iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations has confirmed the acquisition of Monster Games, Inc.
The Minnesota-based game development studio has a long history of racing game development, including the NASCAR Heat franchise and more recently Tony Stewart’s Sprint Car Racing game.
“We are really pleased to be able to share this news, it’s been in the works for some time now,” said iRacing president Tony Gardner. “Rich and his team are a proven studio with unique skills that will really add to our already fantastic team here at iRacing. We’ll be able to add a lot to MGI’s products as well in the long run, to include assets, graphics, technologies and physics.
We see a tremendous amount of synergies that we can take advantage of between the studios. That being said, our core strategy, values and culture will remain intact – to build the most realistic and best racing games possible.”
The acquisition will bring another level of expertise under the iRacing roof, and further the company’s ability to bring the highest quality racing games to the broader market, including the console space.
This acquisition, along with the previously announced Orontes Games purchase, are standalone development studios and projects.
The iRacing development team vows to remain 100 percent focused on continuing to develop its core product, iRacing. The iRacing platform is regarded as the most realistic and leading PC based racing simulation on the market and features multiple forms of racing, including NASCAR, dirt ovals, sports cars, open-wheel single seaters, prototypes, off-road trucks and rally.
In addition to its laser-scanned tracks and officially licensed vehicles, iRacing provides a one-stop shop for sim racers and race gamers – fostering a racing community with official races, multiple racing licenses and match making, private leagues and more.
President and owner of MGI, Rich Garcia, will join the iRacing development team and be reunited with iRacing CEO & CTO Dave Kaemmer, who worked together at Kaemmer’s former company, Papyrus Racing Games, where Garcia was instrumental in the early years of Papyrus in building the foundation for what iRacing has become today.
“Rich and I worked together for many years at Papyrus, with great success,” Kaemmer said. “We are at a point as a company that we are comfortable building out these two new teams to explore the broader racing game market to ultimately funnel serious sim racers to our flagship product iRacing on the PC. Rich and the Monster team will be an important part of that strategy as we use our code and experience to bring their games to another level.
“I am very excited to be working with Rich again, as well as the extremely talented team at Monster Games.”
Garcia and his team will continue development on their currently unannounced project, with the aim to release the title later this year.
Follow up titles from MGI will be developed using technology and content from the shared resources of all three development studios.
“I’m really excited for the future of Monster Games and iRacing,” said Garcia. “To be working with my longtime friend and colleague Dave once again is awesome. Our studios will really complement each other’s and I fully expect to see positive impacts on both products. To now have tools and resources, and quite frankly time, to build these games and to do it with the leading racing simulation company in the market place is beyond exciting for me. I can’t wait to get started”